Now that we have a serious amount of riders on the island at any given time, I am surprised at the lack of ‘packs’ or peletons forming. From my perspective, it appears that drafting only takes into account one rider ahead of you. If there are many other people up front, the draft effect does not seem to increase at all.
It seems for mass start events to work (with the exception of TT’s!) we would need the concept of peleton drafting.
The drafting physics still appear to be a work in progress.
Yeah, drafting a single rider seems realistic enough to me, but drafting a pack is nowhere as easy as it should be.
This to me, right before wheelie spinning riders, is the biggest “bug”. On the real road if a group goes out they will naturally form a group due to drafting, even people of vastly different fitness levels. In Tour De Giro I can set a race with a bunch of bots and they will naturally form into groups as well. But on Zwift you can have 70 people on a 3 mile loop and have no groups at all. If Zwift wants to simulate real world riding this should be pretty high on the priority list.
Chris, it looks like the ride physics will take into account a single leader but not the drafting effect of a pack of riders. Since this is a beta, I hope they are working on these ride dynamics.
Just my experience, but without an erg trainer, I don’t feel any benefit from drafting when in zwift. The only evidence I see is virtual speed increase. Without some sort of physical feedback the incentive for drafting isn’t really there.
Beyond that, when I get on the trainer, my main goal is to get off the trainer as soon as possible and maximize the workout I get during that time. Drafting runs counter to that idea.
Drafting in zwift is very dificult, anyone try to go a full lap drafting someone without the little display popping up telling you to close the gap? I’m convinced it can’t be done. In real life it would be a simple thing, hopefully this will improve.
I did a race in TDG using 2 avitars, one was powered by my kickr the other off my quarq crank. My kickr reads about 7-10 watts higher but the quarq rider was able to hold my wheel on the flats and downhills, although I would gap him on the uphills. I eased up and he grabbed the wheel of some passing AI’s a few times and cought back up to me. It was fun to try to keep him with me and seemed pretty realistic. I’ll hafta try this out on Zwift and see what the results are like. I suspect the riders will not stay together.
Can’t agree more with the posts here. Drafting should be easier and play a bigger effect. Hope they are working on this.